BilikFamily.com

Taxes - Today is a real "count your blessings" day. It would be easy for me to feel like The Grumpy Bug. I say this because I'm doing taxes. My old business partner used to say, "it's the good news and the bad news". The good news is you made money (which certainly beats the alternative). But from a tax situation, our progressive tax setup can make it feel like you get punished if you made a little extra.

As happens to more and more filers, this year we fell subject to the AMT. When we were all getting let go at the office shutdown last year, we were pretty vocal that our severance was pathetic compared to industry standards for engineering and design firms. I'd worked at my last site for seven years. At some larger engineering firms, a forced buyout for that kind of tenure will get you several months of pay. Our severance was about a month, give or take. I also got a small bonus for hanging on until the end instead of bailing early before the lights went out. Combine that with the cash out of my vacation balance, and suddenly it's "whoa! the tax man cometh!". AMT-time!

Not only did I get hit with AMT, but that little extra also scaled back my child tax credit. What bothers me is that the amount at which they start phasing out the credit does not vary with the number of children. So whether you have one child or ten, once you exceed some threshold of income, they start peeling away the credit. The per child amount goes down once you cross the magic number. Funny that children don't get much less expensive as you have more.

Alas, I'm trying to keep a positive outlook. At the beginning of 2006 I wasn't sure whether my severance would cover my unemployment. As it happened, I packed my office one evening and unpacked it at my new job the very next morning. For having such continuous work, I am grateful. I did not need to dip into my severance pay to cover regular monthly expenses. If I were a vain man, I'd gloat that I hit the AMT on just one household wage earner. Usually it more commonly hits dual income families. I suspect that next year will be a 'steady state' year and we may not get dinged like that again.

Tomorrow I'll figure out what we owe the People's Republic of Massachusetts. While New Hampshire doesn't have a state income tax, Massachusetts certainly does and makes no bones about taxation without representation. They are happy to take the money of non-residents without factoring in one dime of NH's high property tax as an offset.

Misc - Now that I've gotten down from my soapbox, a few other recent items of note:

• The kids had a teacher training day today. As seems common in such events, there were as many (if not more) children at the house who aren't our own as are. Michelle must be trying to mitigate time in Purgatory...
• Two of our Nintendo DS Lites go back to the NY repair center tomorrow due to cracks in their hinges. From a little Googling, it seems this is not an uncommon problem.
• Due to a meeting that syncs up with the left coast, tomorrow I'll go to work later and stay a bit later. I feel bad because near the end of the day, Michelle often needs another adult to talk to and keep her sane. There's only so many times you want to hear "Mom?" in a day.
• We started the boys' training on two wheels last weekend. They're not there yet, but show promise.
• We took the kids to see Bridge to Terabithia at the Nashua Chunky's. We all liked the movie, and it definitely surprised us. It wasn't what we expected. We really enjoyed Chunky's and will definitely try to use them if our next family movie is showing there.
• Michelle bought Wii Play today. We haven't opened it yet, so I don't have an opinion on it.
• Today I finished the audiobook "The Politically Incorrect Guide to Global Warming (and Environmentalism)" by Christopher Horner. If you're going to watch An Inconvenient Truth, you should at least consider the other viewpoint and not dismiss it out of hand with an ad hominem attack of "must be funded by Big Oil" or the "consensus" myth.
• Tomorrow I'll resume listening to the audiobook of "The Dolorous Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ". I got about half way through it when the Politically Incorrect Guide came in so I took a short break. I want to finish this book (which was a key reference for Mel Gibson's Passion of the Christ) before Palm Sunday.

Suzanne - Lastly I'll close with a most heartfelt congratulations to Suzy, who got engaged last weekend. Who-hoo! A marriage proposal on the beaches of Florida, no less! It's certainly more romantic than proposing in Terre Haute! I'm just sayin'...